Prof shouts ‘Death to Israel’
Julio Pino
Last week, former Israeli deputy consul general Ishmael Khaldi – a Muslim Bedouin – was giving a lecture at Kent State University on his experiences as an advocate for Israel. Khaldi is a living, breathing embodiment of Israel’s values of free exercise of religion and equality of opportunity.
A professor at Kent State, one Julio Pino, doesn’t see it that way. During the question-and-answer portion of the lecture, after asking a question, Pino shouted “death to Israel” and stormed out of the hall.
“Death to Israel.” From a professor. A tenured professor, in case you needed to ask.
And that’s not to mention Dr. Pino’s past associations with jihadist websites, questionable behavior, and radical statements.
This is what pro-Israel students face on campus from hostile academics and anti-Israel student groups. Part of our mission of advocacy must be to educate our young people to stand up to the falsehoods and the bullying – and to insist that our elected leaders take action against taxpayer-funded institutions which continue to employ bigots like Julio Pino. Are you listening, Ohio?
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Wednesday, November 2nd, 2011 at 10:57 AM | Rabbi Jonathan Greenberg
Joseph’s Tomb vandalized
Boot prints left in the concrete (Photo:Shomron Regional Council)
Wednesday night, Palestinians defaced Joseph’s Tomb, one of Judaism’s holiest sites, spray-painting swastikas on the walls. Israelis are especially angered by the desecration because it was performed only days before Yom Kippur – the Day of Atonement, one of the holiest days of the Jewish year, when many Jews make their annual pilgrimage to the site.
The place of Joseph’s burial lies in the biblical city of Shechem and has been a magnet for Jewish worshipers for thousands of years. The Bible recounts that upon Joseph’s deathbed he demanded that his brothers promise to bring his remains to Israel. When Moses and the Jewish people left Egypt they fulfilled the promise made to Joseph — his remains were taken out of Egypt and carried throughout the Jewish people’s long journey to the land of Israel. Joseph’s remains were then buried in Shechem, which is currently the Palestinian city of Nablus.
In the 1993 Oslo Accords, Israel agreed to forfeit its control over Nablus. However, the agreement stipulated that Joseph’s Tomb would remain under Israel’s authority and Jews would be granted access to the holy site. But since the time of the Second Intifada in 2000, when Arabs in Nablus rioted and defiled Joseph’s Tomb, Jews visit the site only on select occasions, and are escorted by the IDF.
Jews who travel to Joseph’s Tomb today do so knowing they are risking their lives. Last Passover, a Jewish man visiting the site was shot and killed by a Palestinian Authority officer. I attempted to travel to the Tomb last year on the date of Joseph’s passing, and though the site was officially accessible to Israelis, I was prevented by Israeli soldiers from reaching the holy site due to security concerns.
How sad and tragic it is that Jews can’t worship freely in their historic homeland. When I hear of Jewish vandals setting Mosques on fire, or burning Korans, I am also angered. I do not believe this to be the path of God. A truly righteous person does not threaten others, but leads by example with faith, generosity, and humility before God.
Comments (16) »Friday, October 7th, 2011 at 8:05 AM | Amichai Farkas
Poland walks away from Durban III
Photo by: REUTERS
A Polish diplomat announced on Tuesday that the Polish government will not attend the notorious U.N.-sponsored Durban III anti-racism conference on September 22 in New York because of the likelihood that the event will be used to promote racism, anti-Semitism, and xenophobia”:
Jacek Biegała, a spokesman for the Polish Embassy in Berlin, told the Post that Poland’s government “will definitively not participate in Durban III,” adding that the “we fear that the ten-year commemoration event will be used to foster opinions and positions that are the opposite of fighting racism and intolerance.”
Biegala said that the fight against racism contains efforts to combat anti-Semitism and that Poland will continue to oppose racism and intolerance abroad and domestically through its activities and NGOs.
Poland’s decision to boycott the UN parley follows France’s decision over the weekend to skip the Durban III event, making Poland the the 14th country to pull the plug on its participation. The other countries who have announced they plan to stay away from Durban III are Britain, Bulgaria, Australia, Germany, Austria, New Zealand Canada, the Czech Republic, Israel, Italy, Netherlands, and the United States.
Let’s hear it for the Poles! If more countries followed their lead, this farcical conference might not even happen at all.
Comments (11) »Tuesday, September 20th, 2011 at 2:29 PM | David Kuner
ADL: 9/11 anti-Semitic theories ‘alive and well’
Ten years after September 11, 2001, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), an organization which aims to fight “anti-Semitism and all forms of bigotry in the U.S. and abroad,” issued a new report saying that conspiracy theories surrounding the attacks have continued to grow and evolve over the last decade:
Attack on World Trade Center (Photo AFP)
A new chorus of voices – who claim not to be anti-Jewish but simply anti-Zionist – have become the most popular promoters of these ideas, the Jewish group says.
“It is shocking that nearly a decade after 9/11 we are still confronted with those who continue to deny the historical record of 9/11 or who hold fast to anti-Semitic myths about that horrific day,” says ADL National Director Abraham H. Foxman. “For 10 years, the historical record has been warped and manipulated by anti-Semites’ intent of creating their false version of history.
“One of the saddest outcomes of 9/11 is that despite the fact that this national tragedy that brought so Americans together, there remains this small group of vocal bigots who, nearly a decade later, are still seeking to promote and sell their own sinister agenda of blaming Jews and Israel.”
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Thursday, September 1st, 2011 at 10:57 AM | David Kuner
How to respond to hatred of Israel
As a partnership of Christians and Jews who publicly and proudly stand for Israel and help Jews in need around the world, our words are often challenged. That comes with the territory. Unfortunately, the “wild west” of new media – communications channels like Facebook and Twitter — provides a vehicle not just for lovers of Israel, but for those who hate the Jewish state as well. 
That point was again illustrated to us last week, when terrorist attacks hit southern Israel. In response to the attacks, our Stand for Israel Facebook page was bombarded with the vilest forms of comments. “Israelis will consider Hitler very merciful compared to what we [Egyptians] will do to you,” and “I will not rest until every Israeli rat is burning,” are just two of them. These slurs came from a wide range of people, from Muslim Brotherhood supporters in Egypt to white supremacists in the U.S.
While we did our best to delete these despicable comments as quickly as they were posted, I was shaken by the depth of their hatred. And I was also reminded just how critical Stand for Israel and all of Israel’s supporters are for defending Israel and the treasured values it shares with those that support her.
Our response to hate speech campaigns like this has to involve more than just deleting or challenging despicable anti-Israel statements. It must involve clear, decisive, and overwhelming support for Israel, based on the facts underlying the Israeli-Arab conflict. Those facts, which we work hard to keep you informed of, show that that Israel is on the right side of history, and has successfully retained the moral high ground in face of the cruelest and most evil actions of its enemies.
Also, we cannot resort to the type of hate speech our enemies use. When I was a teenager and was verbally attacked for being Jewish I asked my rabbi how to respond. He said to me, “Amichai, when a dog barks at you, you don’t bark back.” That’s a lesson that has stuck with…
Read More » Comments (46) »Wednesday, August 24th, 2011 at 7:29 AM | Amichai Farkas
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